What-nots from a mother who'd like to think she's cool when she most probably is not.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Tripping out on Turbo!

SPOILER ALERT!

Wow! This is definitely a month of movie reviews! All the family movies we were expecting to be showered with in the summer all came in like a massive hurricane as soon as school started.

On our plate today: Escargo! Oh wait... TURBO!
It's a tiny player compared to the bigness of Monsters University and Despicable Me 2. Save for the usual trailer, Dreamworks didn't put much fanfare to this flick. There's not even a single spot of merchandise at the cinema door.

That's why it was so cool to realize that this movie is actually awesome!

Admittedly, I was skeptical at first. It reeked so much of Disney Pixar's Cars. You know, downtrodden town (in this case, mall) gets back on the map, thanks to a race car (in this case, race snail) but not before said race car (in this case, race snail) gets arrested (in this case, snailnapped), and then taken in by a misfit band of town cars (in this case, misfit --yet badass-- snails) and given the blind support of a broken-down tow truck (in this case, a very broke taco guy).

But you know what, Turbo has more heart than Cars. That's because it's an underdog story. It's a rising against the norm story. It's a brotherhood story nicely played by snails Chet and Theo --and their human counterparts, Angelo and Tito. And it's a reality story where your biggest hero can be your biggest enemy. My kids loved that twist!
Speaking of twists, the best line in the movie ironically came from said hero/archenemy. 'No dream is too big and no dreamer is too small.' Imagine that!

Turbo is solid with the right amount of moral lesson and breathtaking action. The incredible snail attachments got my boys geeking out, too. They might just gear up our dogs with rocket boosters soon. Uh-oh.